Interest rates for the MLF loans were unchanged at 3.20 percent, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said in a statement on its website.

A batch of 188 billion yuan of 12-month MLF loans is due to mature on Wednesday, and another batch with a value of 187 billion yuan is set to expire later in the month.

In the same statement, the central bank said it had skipped reverse repos on Wednesday, while 240 billion yuan worth of reverse repos are due to mature on the same day. ($1 = 6.6186 Chinese yuan) (Reporting by Winni Zhou and John Ruwitch; Editing by Sam Holmes)